Impersonator

Beware...

(Imposter’s profile pic)

He slid into my Substack DMs shortly after following me. A man claiming to be a 4 star general in the US Army named Stephen Townsend, born and raised in Georgia, currently stationed in Syria.

I checked Wiki which said:

“Stephen J. Townsend (born 1959) is an American retired United States Army four-star general who served as Commander United States Africa Command from 26 July 2019 to 8 August 2022. “

I was skeptical. He asked my name, location, age and job info. Instead of divulging that info, I asked him why he followed me when he had not posted anything on Substack yet. My hinkiness detector was working full force. I thought it would be fun to toy with him.

This is from his 1st DM - it’s just an excerpt because the rest is TL:DR.

“You look nice and attractive to me. When I came across your profile and you got my attention, I decided to send my care to you. I hope you are not angry with that. I appreciate your response to me!”

Saying that he found me to be “nice and attractive” is laughable because my profile pic is that of a painting, obviously not a candid photo and how on earth could he determine my niceness without knowing me or even reading my work.

More than once, he inquired as to whether or not I was happily married with kids.

Then he told me about his life: failed marriage, two grown sons, of whom one was no longer in contact with him. He said that he came to Substack to communicate with his men who had recently been attacked. Considering that he had no posts at all, I wondered whether he was planning to DM all of them.

Anyway, he asked me for my email so he could text me. In response I told him that his behaviour is highly suspicious and surely he could understand my reluctance to continue the conversation since he hadn’t read my work and had no idea who I was. Oh, and also asked if he was contacting other women as well. Like a fishing expedition...

For fun, I suggested that he read my most recent post. I sent the link.

His reply about 1 minute later was:

“I click on the link, and I read the song that you wrote. It was nice, and I’m happy listening to it. You have an amazing talent. Do you mind us talking on email?”

I posted this in reply: “It’s not a song. There’s nothing to listen to. I doubt that it made you happy because it ends in death. And you are impersonating an officer of the US Army. You are not Steve Townsend. He retired in 2022, therefore is not currently deployed to Syria.”

My final message to him was “No. 😁” when he asked yet again for my email address. He also said, “ Please don’t say I’m not Stephen Townsend.”

Anyway, I grew bored at this point and reported him for impersonation and, shortly thereafter, his account disappeared.

Such a pity to lose him. He was the first catfisher to slide into my DMs in ages.

😁

©Ellen Pepper 2025